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COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY 
THE  LIBRARIES 


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LIBRARY 


The  Fundamental  Basis 
of  Nutrition 


By 
GRAHAM  LUSK 

Professor  of  Physiology,  Cornell  University 

Medical  College,  and  Scientific  Director 

of  the  Russell  Sage   Institute 

of  Pathology 


New  Haven  :  Yale  University  Press 

London:  Humphrey  Milford 

Oxford  University  Press 

mdccccxiv 


•236' 

Copyright,  1914,  by 
Yale  University  Press 


First  printed  March,  1914 

One  thousand  five  hundred  copies 

Reprinted  June,  1914 

One  thousand  copies 


QP 141 


PREFACE 

This  lecture  is  published  in  its  present  form  that 
educated  people  may  be  able  to  obtain  a  better  under- 
standing of  the  principles  of  nutrition  than  is  to  be 
derived  from  current  popular  writings.  The  lecture 
was  delivered  in  November,  1913,  as  the  Anniver- 
sary Address  of  the  New  York  Academy  of 
Medicine. 

Graham  Lusk. 

Cornell  University  Medical  College, 
New  York  City. 


CONTENTS 


I.  Historical  .... 

II.  The  Constant  Need  of  Fuel 

III.  The  Constant  Need  of  Protein  . 

IV.  Habits  of  Diet 
V.  The  Curious  Disease  of  Beri-beri 

VI.  Criteria    of    the    Monetary    Value    of 
Foods  .... 


1 

6 

16 

27 
36 

41 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2010  with  funding  from 
Columbia  University  Libraries 


http://www.archive.org/details/fundamentalbasisOOIusk 


I 

HISTORICAL 

The  object  of  this  paper  is  to  present  the  subject 
of  nutrition  in  its  broad  general  aspects  and  to 
suggest  the  possibility  of  the  practical  application  of 
some  of  the  facts  which  years  of  labor  through 
many  generations  of  workers  have  brought  to  light. 

It  seems  as  though  mankind  had  a  right  to  a 
knowledge  of  the  value  of  the  foods  which  a  boun- 
tiful Nature  has  provided  for  his  use.  Even  among 
educated  persons  one  may  hear  the  grossest  errors 
of  judgment  regarding  the  nutritive  value  of  a  hen's 
egg  and  few  of  those  who  eat  in  restaurants  realize 
that  the  greater  quota  of  nourishment  which  is 
brought  to  them  lies  not  in  the  specific  dish  served 
but  in  the  bread  and  butter  which  ostensibly  is 
presented  as  a  gift. 

From  the  earliest  times  it  was  evident  that  al- 
though an  adult  partook  of  a  great  deal  of  food,  he 
did  not  gain  in  weight.  Hippocrates  believed  this  to 
be  due  to  a  constant  loss  of  insensible  perspiration 
and  to  the  elimination  of  heat,  which  he  conceived  to 
be  a  fine  form  of  matter.  Galen,  six  hundred  years 
later  than  Hippocrates,  was  no  further  advanced  in 
his  conception  of  nutrition.  For  thirteen  hundred 
years  after  Galen  intellectual  progress  lay  dormant 
under  the  spell  of  the  Dark  Ages. 


2  BASIS  OF  NUTRITION 

One  of  the  first  inquirers  of  the  Renaissance,  the 
brilliant  Paracelsus,  explained  the  phenomenon  of 
nutrition  as  being  under  the  supervision  of  an 
archeus,  a  spirit  which  dwelt  in  the  stomach  and 
separated  the  food  into  the  good  and  the  bad,  the 
good  being  used  by  the  organs  of  the  body,  and  the 
bad  eliminated. 

A  true  conception  of  the  nutritive  process  could 
only  be  formulated  when  a  knowledge  of  the  exist- 
ence of  the  various  gases  was  revealed.  It  was 
Lavoisier  who  first  showed  that  when  an  organic 
substance  burned,  the  products  of  combustion  were 
equal  to  the  sum  of  the  original  substance  and 
oxygen.  Oxygen  had  but  recently  been  discovered 
by  Priestley.  Lavoisier  burned  plants  and  found 
that  carbon  dioxide  and  water  resulted.  He,  there- 
fore, concluded  that  they  contained  carbon  and 
hydrogen.  Animals  contained  nitrogen  in  addition. 
This  was  the  first  analysis  of  organic  material. 

Lavoisier  went  further  and  found  that  an  animal 
or  a  man,  like  a  burning  piece  of  wood,  absorbed 
oxygen  and  eliminated  carbon  dioxide.  He  dis- 
covered that  the  process  of  heat  production  in  man 
was  one  due  to  oxidation,  that  the  prevailing  idea 
that  particles  of  air  entered  the  salt  and  sulphur  con- 
taining blood  and  there  caused  fermentation  was 
untrue.  Lavoisier  measured  the  heat  given  off  by  a 
guinea  pig  by  noting  the  quantity  of  ice  melted  by 
the  animal  when  placed  in  a  hollow  block  of  ice,  and 


HISTORICAL  3 

he  measured  the  gases  given  off  by  the  animal  in 
order  to  determine  whether  the  heat  produced  could 
be  accounted  for  by  the  oxidation  going  on. 

He,  furthermore,  determined  that  oxidation  in 
man  was  increased  by  giving  him  food,  by  causing 
him  to  do  mechanical  work  or  by  subjecting  him  to 
the  influence  of  cold.  Reflecting  upon  these  facts 
during  the  troublous  times  of  the  French  Revolu- 
tion, Lavoisier  wrote,  "Does  it  not  seem  a  great 
injustice  of  Nature  that  the  poor  laborer  uses  more 
of  his  body  substance,  while  superfluity,  which  is 
unnecessary  for  the  rich,  should  be  his  portion  ?" 

To  the  darkness  of  the  history  of  the  time  belongs 
the  fact  that  Lavoisier,  begging,  according  to 
Carlyle,  for  two  weeks  more  of  life  in  order  to  com- 
plete his  experiments,  was  guillotined,  thereby  be- 
coming the  greatest  sacrifice  of  the  insensate  fury 
of  his  age.  (For  this  earlier  literature  see  Carl 
Voit:  L'eber  die  Theorien  der  Ernahrung  der 
tierischen  Organismus,  Miinchen,  1868.) 

The  progress  of  science  is  a  history  of  great  dis- 
coveries of  fact  which  become  established,  and  of 
destruction  of  theories  which  are  temporary  mental 
conclusions  shown  later  to  be  untenable.  Nor  can  a 
master  mind  like  that  of  Lavoisier  escape  the  appli- 
cation of  this  universal  law.  He  showed  that 
animal  heat  was  due  to  a  process  of  oxidation  but 
he  believed  that  the  heat  produced  was  caused  by 
the  union  of  oxygen  with  carbon  and  with  hydro- 


4  BASIS  OF  NUTRITION 

gen  in  the  lungs.  It  was  not  till  sixty  years  after 
his  death  that  it  was  fully  realized  that  the  heat  pro- 
duction was  due  to  the  oxidation  of  protein,  fat  and 
carbohydrate  within  the  different  organs  of  the 
body. 

Carl  Voit,  to  whom  more  than  anyone  else  the 
world  owes  its  fundamental  knowledge  of  nutrition, 
was  accustomed  to  say  in  his  lectures,  "Continual 
decompositions  of  matter  are  always  going  on  in  the 
living  cells,  and  the  energy  liberated  in  these  decom- 
positions is  the  power  upon  which  the  motions  of 
life  depend.  Phenomena  of  life  are  phenomena  of 
motion."  In  truly  poetical  language  Rubner,  the 
most  eminent  of  Voit's  pupils,  has  written,  "Mute 
and  still,  by  night  and  by  day,  labor  goes  on  in  the 
workshops  of  life.  Here  an  animal  grows,  there  a 
plant,  and  the  wonder  of  it  all  is  not  the  less  in  the 
smallest  being  than  in  the  largest." 

The  workshops  of  life  require  fuel  to  maintain 
them,  and  a  necessary  function  of  nutrition  is  to 
furnish  fuel  to  the  organism  that  the  motions  of  life 
continue.  Furthermore,  the  workshops  of  life  are 
in  a  constant  state  of  partial  breaking  down  and 
materials  must  be  furnished  to  repair  the  worn-out 
parts.  In  the  fuel  factor  and  the  repair  factor  lie 
the  essence  of  the  science  of  nutrition. 

These  two  factors  operate  to  bring  about  death 
from  starvation,  either  the  body's  own  store  of  fuel 
becomes    exhausted   or  a   part   of   the   machinery 


HISTORICAL  5 

necessary  for  life  wears  out.  As  regards  the  course 
of  death  from  starvation,  there  exists  the  written 
record  of  the  explorer  Hubbard.  The  following 
words  are  believed  to  have  been  penned  a  few  hours 
before  his  death  in  Labrador.  "I  am  not  suffering. 
The  acute  pangs  of  hunger  have  given  way  to  indif- 
ference. I'm  sleepy.  I  think  death  from  starvation 
not  so  bad.  But  let  no  one  suppose  I  expect  it.  I 
am  prepared — that  is  all."  Hubbard's  biographer 
quotes  the  following  as  showing  the  spirit  of  the 
lost  explorer,  as  it  indeed  represents  the  spirit  of 
all  investigators : 

"  Something  hidden.    Go  and  find  it.    Go  and  look  behind 
the  Ranges. 
Something  lost  behind  the  Ranges.     Lost  and  waiting 
for  you.     Go." 


II 

THE  CONSTANT  NEED  OF  FUEL 

The  light  and  heat  of  the  sun  playing  on  the 
green  leaf  of  the  plant  cause  carbon  dioxide  and 
water  to  unite  to  form  sugar.  Heat  is  absorbed  in 
the  process  and  oxygen  is  given  off  to  the  atmos- 
phere. If  one  gram  of  sugar  be  placed  in  a  very 
strong,  closed  steel  receptacle  into  which  oxygen, 
under  a  pressure  of  450  pounds  to  the  square  inch, 
is  conducted,  and  then  if  the  sugar  be  kindled  by  an 
electric  spark  it  will  be  completely  burned  to  carbon 
dioxide  and  water  and  exactly  the  same  quantity  of 
heat  will  be  liberated  as  was  obtained  from  the  sun 
in  the  original  manufacture  of  the  substance.  If  the 
steel  receptacle  be  placed  in  a  liter  of  water  in  which 
a  thermometer  has  been  put  it  may  be  noticed  that 
the  temperature  of  the  water  rises  nearly  3.75°. 
After  making  certain  corrections,  it  may  be  proved 
that  1  gram  of  glucose,  when  oxidized,  yields  heat 
sufficient  to  raise  one  liter  of  water  3.755°  C.  Since 
the  measure  for  heat  is  a  calorie  or  that  quantity  of 
heat  required  to  raise  1  liter  of  water  1°  C,  it  fol- 
lows that  1  gram  of  glucose  yields  3.755  calories  of 
heat.  This  apparatus  measures  the  heat  of  combus- 
tion of  organic  substances  like  sugar,  starch,  meat, 
fat,  etc.,  and  is  called  a  bomb  calorimeter  (a 
measurer  of  calories).  The  calorie  or  heat  unit  is 
as  much  an  exact  value  for  measurements  of  heat 


THE  CONSTANT  NEED  OF  FUEL        7 

as  are  a  quart  or  a  pound  for  measurements  of 
volume  or  weight. 

When  protein  is  burned  in  the  bomb,  the  nitrogen 
of  it  is  converted  into  nitric  acid,  but  when  protein 
is  burned  in  the  body,  its  nitrogen  is  not  oxidized 
but  is  eliminated  in  the  form  of  urea,  so  the  heat 
produced  from  protein  in  the  body  is  always  less 
than  that  measured  by  the  bomb.  Sugar,  however, 
yields  the  same  products  in  the  bomb  and  in  the 
body  and,  therefore,  the  amount  of  heat  produced  is 
identically  the  same,  no  matter  where  the  oxidation 
takes  place.    The  same  is  true  of  fat. 

One  gram  of  the  ordinary  food  stuffs  when 
oxidized  in  the  body  yields  the  following  number  of 
calories : 

Calories 

Glucose     3.755 

Cane  sugar    4.0 

Starch     4.1 

Fat     9.3 

Protein   4.1 

It  has  been  said  by  some  that  they  never  will  be 
converted  to  the  belief  that  a  knowledge  of  calories 
in  nutrition  is  valuable.  These  persons  must  be 
reasoned  with  and  persuaded  to  listen  and  they 
cannot  then  but  be  convinced. 

The  law  of  the  conservation  of  energy  holds  that 
power  cannot  arise  from  nothing.  Power  must  be 
derived  from  some  store  of  energy,  from  energy 


8  BASIS  OF  NUTRITION 

which  is  potential.  The  store  of  power  in  the  food 
stuffs  is  liberated  when  they  are  oxidized  in  the 
body.  This  power  becomes  the  source  of  the  mo- 
tions of  life,  and  in  the  resting  organism  is  finally 
liberated  as  heat.  If  this  be  true,  then  if  one  can 
measure  the  quantity  of  protein,  fat  and  carbo- 
hydrate (sugar)  oxidized  in  an  animal  in  twenty- 
four  hours  one  can  calculate  the  quantity  of  heat 
which  will  arise  from  this  process.  If,  at  the  same 
time,  the  animal  can  be  placed  in  a  calorimeter, 
which  measures  the  heat  actually  given  off  during 
the  period,  the  two  computations  should  exactly 
agree. 

To  Rubner  belongs  the  glory  of  being  the  first  to 
have  demonstrated  this  truth. 

Calorimeters  have  since  been  constructed  to 
measure  the  heat  production  in  man.  The  labors  of 
Atwater,  Rosa  and  Benedict  have  confirmed  the 
application  of  the  law  of  the  conservation  of  energy 
to  man.  The  oxygen  intake  and  carbonic  acid  outgo 
give  a  measure  of  the  oxidation  of  the  food  stuffs, 
and  the  heat  given  off  by  the  body  is  found  to  be 
equal  to  the  quantity  of  heat  which  would  have 
arisen  from  the  oxidation  of  just  that  quantity  of 
protein,  fat  and  carbohydrate  estimated  to  have  been 
destroyed. 

In  a  calorimeter  built  for  the  Russell  Sage  Insti- 
tute of  Pathology  in  Bellevue  Hospital,  it  has  been 
found  that  if  a  definite  amount  of  alcohol  be  burned 


THE  CONSTANT  NEED  OF  FUEL        9 

in  a  lamp  within  the  apparatus,  the  heat  measured 
during  a  four-hour  period  is  exactly  that  amount 
which  the  theory  would  call  for. 

Theory  Found 

212.57  211.88 

Doctors  Du  Bois  and  Warren  Coleman  have  dis- 
covered that  a  typhoid  patient,  during  a  period  of 
five  hours  of  rest  in  this  calorimeter,  produced  the 
same  number  of  calories  as  were  calculated  he 
should  produce  from  the  materials  which  were 
oxidized  in  his  body. 

Theory  Found 

422.59  419.78 

Contemplation  of  such  a  result  as  this  drives 
home  the  fact  that  if  this  typhoid  patient  is  to  be 
kept  from  losing  his  own  body  muscle  and  fat,  he 
must  be  given  the  equivalent  of  422  calories  in  food 
substances  during  a  five-hour  period. 

If  one  measures  the  hourly  heat  production  of  a 
normal  resting  man,  one  must  be  convinced  of  its 
constancy.  The  human  furnace  requires  a  certain 
quantity  of  fuel  to  support  the  activities  of  life. 
Measurement  of  the  total  heat  production,  there- 
fore, becomes  a  measurement  of  the  intensity  of  the 
life  processes. 

The  quantity  of  heat  produced  by  mammalia  of 
the  same  size  is  fixed  and  definite  and  can  be  closely 
predicted  in  advance.     It  is  not  dependent  on  the 


10  BASIS  OF  NUTRITION 

weight  of  the  animal  nor  upon  the  relative  size  of 
the  individual  cells.  Thus,  the  size  of  the  cells 
which  make  up  the  substance  matter  of  a  mouse  is 
not  very  different  from  the  size  of  the  cells  of  the 
horse,  yet  a  mouse  produces  452  calories  per  kilo- 
gram of  body  weight  in  24  hours  and  the  horse  14.5 
calories.  The  mouse  requires  thirty  times  more 
food  per  unit  of  body  weight  than  the  horse.  How- 
ever, Rubner  has  shown  that  all  well-nourished 
mammals  produce  the  same  number  of  calories  per 
square  meter  of  surface. 

A  normal  man,  well  nourished,  who  is  resting 
quietly  in  his  bed  in  the  morning,  having  been  with- 
out food  for  fifteen  hours,  will  manifest  a  minimum 
level  of  heat  production.  This  level  may  be  called 
the  basal  heat  production.  The  following  table  has 
been  prepared  to  show  the  constancy  of  energy  pro- 
duction under  these  circumstances : 


[dividual 

B 

Weight 

in 

kilos 

83 

Calorii 

per 
kilo 

1.01 

1.03 
1.01 
0.9S 
0.96 
1.00 
1.15 
1.07 
1.13 

;s  per  hour 
per 
square  meter 
surface 

35,7 

G.  L 

78 

36.5 

D.   B 

74 

35.3 

R 

c 

74 

68 

32.5 
31.7 

J.  R 

H 

66 

62 

32.7 
37.0 

G 

56 

34.0 

T.  C 

49 

37.7 

THE  CONSTANT  NEED  OF  FUEL   11 

In  the  light  of  this  exposition  no  educated  man 
can  say  that  he  "does  not  believe  in  calories,"  when 
the  energy  in  the  food  stuffs  constitutes  the  basis  of 
his  being,  and  calories  eliminated  from  his  body  are 
a  measure  of  the  sum  total  of  his  physical  activities. 

Food  is  the  fuel  of  the  human  furnace,  and  must 
be  furnished  to  that  furnace  in  accordance  with  its 
needs. 

The  basal  heat  production  of  an  average  man 
weighing  156  pounds  (70  kg.)  will  be  70  calories 
per  hour  or  1,680  calories  in  twenty-four  hours.  If 
food  be  taken  extra  heat  is  produced  in  the  body. 
This  extra  amount  does  not  exceed  10  per  cent  of 
the  basal  heat  production  or  7  calories  per  hour  and 
168  per  day,  so  that  the  maintenance  requirement  of 
this  man,  resting  quietly  in  bed,  would  be  1,848 
calories  in  the  daily  diet. 

Beyond  this,  the  amount  of  fuel  needed  depends 
upon  the  quantity  of  mechanical  work  done.  It 
becomes  purely  a  matter  of  supplying  fuel  for  the 
machinery. 

It  has  been  shown  by  Atwater  and  by  Benedict 
that  if  a  person  sits  in  absolute  quiet  in  a  chair  the 
heat  production  is  8  per  cent  greater  than  when  he  is 
lying  on  a  bed.  If,  however,  those  ordinary  move- 
ments are  made  which  are  associated  with  daily  life 
when  sitting  in  a  chair,  the  heat  production  may  rise 
29  per  cent,  or  from  a  basal  level  of  70  to  a  level  of 
90  calories  per  hour,  an  increase  of  20  calories. 


12  BASIS  OF  NUTRITION 

Since  the  influence  of  food  is  to  increase  the  metabo- 
lism 7  calories  per  hour  during  twenty-four  hours, 
and  the  influence  of  a  sedentary  life  adds  20  more 
calories  per  hour  during  the  16  hours  when  a  man  is 
up  in  his  chair,  the  total  energy  requirement  would 
be: 

Calories 
Night  (70  +  7)X8=  616 

Day    (70  +  7  +  20)Xl6=     1,552 

2,168 

A  hospital  patient  must  be  liberally  fed  when  he 
receives  this  amount  during  convalescence.  Addi- 
tional fuel  in  the  food  may  be  considered  as  a 
charitable  contribution,  a  welfare  fund  for  future 
use. 

No  normal  man  leading  a  life  involving  sedentary 
occupation,  should  live  without  exercise.  Only  this 
will  keep  his  body  in  proper  condition.  One  may 
attempt  to  calculate  the  additional  energy  require- 
ment needed  for  this  purpose.  To  walk  one  hour 
on  a  level  road  at  the  rate  of  2.7  miles  requires 
energy  to  the  amount  of  160  additional  calories. 
Therefore,  if  the  man  of  sedentary  occupation  walks 
two  hours  daily  to  and  from  his  business,  320 
calories  must  be  added  to  the  2,168  required  to  sup- 
port him  without  exercise,  a  total  of  2,488.  This 
figure  is  not  far  from  Rubner's  average  allowance 


THE  CONSTANT  NEED  OF  FUEL   13 

of  2,445  calories  for  such  men  as  writers,  draughts- 
men, tailors,  physicians,  etc. 

It  follows,  therefore,  that  about  2,500  calories  are 
required  in  the  daily  food  of  a  man  whose  occupa- 
tion is  of  sedentary  character.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
statistics  show  that  the  inhabitants  of  cities  take  this 
amount  of  fuel  daily.  The  latest  statistical  proof 
that  the  food  supply  of  a  great  city  is  regulated  by 
the  needs  of  its  inhabitants  may  be  found  in  the 
report  of  Gautier  which  shows  that  in  Paris  an 
average  of  2,500  calories  of  energy  are  daily  sup- 
plied to  each  inhabitant. 

If  the  exercise  taken  be  vigorous  and  include  hill 
climbing,  the  quantity  of  energy  needed  will  be 
greater  than  when  a  level  road  is  traversed.  To 
climb  on  a  path  at  the  rate  of  2.7  miles  an  hour  so 
that  the  summit  of  a  hill  1,650  feet  high  is  attained 
during  the  hour,  requires  407  extra  calories. 

An  expert  bicycle  rider  at  hard  work  has  indi- 
cated an  increase  in  oxidation  corresponding  to  529 
calories  per  hour  (At water  and  Benedict). 

The  fuel  requirement,  therefore,  depends  upon 
the  quantity  of  work  accomplished. 

The  Kaiser  Wilhelm  Institut  has  recently  granted 
funds  to  Rubner  in  Berlin  in  order  to  establish  a 
special  laboratory  in  which  to  determine  the  specific 
fuel  needs  of  individuals  engaged  in  various  occu- 
pations and  trades. 

Computations  of  the  diets  of  farmers  show  the 


14  BASIS  OF  NUTRITION 

following  interesting  similarity  in  the  fuel  values  of 
their  food : 

Calories 

Farmers  in  Connecticut    3,410 

Farmers  in  Vermont 3,635 

Farmers  in  New  York  3,785 

Farmers  in  Mexico    3,435 

Farmers  in  Italy 3,565 

Farmers  in  Finland 3,474 

Average    3,551 

These  figures,  representing  the  food-fuel  con- 
tained in  the  dietaries  of  individuals  in  widely  dif- 
fering communities  but  engaged  in  the  same  occu- 
pation, show  a  plus  or  minus  variation  of  only  6  per 
cent  from  the  mean  average. 

From  the  present  available  data  one  may  estimate 
the  daily  fuel  requirement  of  well-nourished  adults 
after  the  following  fashion: 

Occupation  Calories 

In  bed  24  hours  1,680 

In  bed  8  hours,  work  involving  sitting  in  a  chair  16 

hours    2,170 

Bed  8  hours,  in  a  chair  14  hours,  moderate  exercise 

2   hours    2,500 

Farmers    3,500 

Rider  in  a  six-day  bicycle  race  10,000 

It  is  apparent  that  the  great  numbers  of  men  em- 
ployed as  clerks  or  those   employed   in  watching 


THE  CONSTANT  NEED  OF  FUEL   15 

machinery  require  about  2,500  calories  in  their  daily 
food. 

A  boy  of  twelve  requires  about  1,500  calories 
daily.  A  baby  when  first  born  requires  100  calories 
per  kilogram  of  body  weight  per  day  and  later  about 
70.  Many  cases  of  reported  chronic  malnutrition  of 
infants  are  in  reality  due  to  persistent  undernutri- 
tion carried  out  in  ignorance  of  the  proper  amount 
of  food  required  by  the  child. 

In  fever,  the  production  of  heat  may  be  50  per 
cent  above  the  normal.  In  cases  of  hyperthyroidism 
(Graves  disease)  even  greater  increases  have  been 
observed,  whereas  in  hypothyroidism  (myxcedema) 
the  heat  production  falls  below  the  normal.  It  fol- 
lows, therefore,  that  increased  nourishment  is  indi- 
cated in  fever  and  in  Graves  disease  whenever  this 
is  possible. 

The  great  practical  importance  of  food  fuel  in 
sufficient  quantity  for  the  human  machine  in  health 
and  disease  warrants  its  consideration  in  greater 
measure  than  has  heretofore  been  given  it. 


Ill 

THE  CONSTANT  NEED  OF  PROTEIN 

If  a  man  take  only  fat,  sugar  and  starch  in  his 
diet,  he  will  be  unable  to  maintain  his  life  during  a 
long  period.  Voit  tells  how  an  English  physician 
nourished  himself  with  sugar  alone  for  a  month, 
became  extremely  weak  and  shortly  thereafter  died, 
a  victim  of  his  scientific  curiosity.  A  diet  may  be 
deficient  in  calcium  salts  and,  therefore,  the  body 
may  suffer  from  calcium  hunger.  Or  a  diet  may  be 
poor  in  iron,  as  a  milk  diet  is,  and  the  person 
nourished  on  such  a  diet  may  become  anemic  from 
want  of  sufficient  iron  to  form  new  red  blood  cells. 

However,  those  who  live  on  the  usual  mixed  diet 
rarely  suffer  from  salt  hunger.  Ample  quantities  of 
salts  are  found  in  milk,  and  iron  is  present  in  the 
yolk  of  eggs,  in  meat  and  in  green  vegetables,  espe- 
cially in  spinach.  Salts,  therefore,  scarcely  enter 
into  the  food  as  an  economic  question.  Common 
table  salt  is  purchased  but  its  use  is  largely  that  of 
a  flavor.  When  potatoes  are  taken  common  salt 
becomes  a  physiological  necessity,  but  its  ordinary 
use  is  in  excess  of  the  amount  actually  required. 

There  is,  however,  one  important  material  to  be 
treasured  and  protected  and  that  is  body  protein. 
There  are  different  kinds  of  proteins,  such  as  those 


CONSTANT  NEED  OF  PROTEIN       17 

of  milk,  meat,  gelatin,  fish,  vegetables.  In  the  pro- 
cess of  digestion  all  of  these  different  kinds  of 
proteins  are  broken  up  into  a  great  number  of  nitro- 
gen-containing acids.  These  have  been  compared  in 
number  to  the  letters  of  the  alphabet.  When  they 
are  arranged  together  they  can  make  many  different 
proteins  just  as  there  are  many  different  words  in 
the  dictionary. 

Suppose  the  word  albumin  were  broken  up  by 
digestion  into  the  letters  a,  b,  i,  1,  m,  n,  u,  then  if 
these  letters  were  absorbed  they  could  be  recon- 
structed into  albumin  again.  Assume  the  same  for 
the  word  globulin.  Now  if  both  albumin  and  globu- 
lin were  to  be  formed  from  a  common  word,  one 
would  have  to  ingest  a  hypothetical  substance  called 
amglobulin,  convertible  into  globulin  if  the  letters  a, 
m  are  abandoned  to  their  fate  or  into  albumin  on 
similarly  exorcising  the  letters  1,  g.  Carrying  the 
analogy  still  further  it  is  evident  that  if  the  letter 
b  were  not  in  the  word  amglobulin,  neither  albumin 
nor  globulin  could  possibly  be  produced. 

This  gives  a  key  to  the  physiological  value  of  dif- 
ferent proteins.  Casein,  the  principal  protein  of 
milk,  contains  practically  all  the  various  elemental 
forms  of  those  structural  materials  which  enter  into 
the  different  proteins  used  to  make  up  the  frame- 
work of  the  machinery  in  the  living  cells. 

The  most  important  letters  of  the  protein  alpha- 
bet are  the  following :  glycocoll,  alanin,  valin,  leucin, 


18  BASIS  OF  NUTRITION 

prolin,  phenylalanin,  aspartic  acid,  glutamic  acid, 
serin,  tyrosin,  cystin,  lysin,  histidin,  arginin,  ammo- 
nia and  tryptophan. 

The  infant  has  the  power  of  transforming  40  per 
cent  of  the  protein  in  its  food  into  new  structural 
machinery,  the  architecture  of  which  depends  upon 
a  regrouping  of  individual  units  formerly  in  the 
protein  of  milk.  Thus  new  proteins  are  built  whose 
internal  arrangement  is  dependent  upon  local  condi- 
tions in  the  various  organs  of  the  child. 

Now  it  is  apparent  that  proteins  are  especially 
valuable  if  they  contain  an  array  of  units  which, 
when  reunited,  form  body  proteins.  Such  food 
proteins  are  those  of  milk,  meat,  eggs  and  fish.  It 
is  also  apparent  that  proteins  like  gelatin  and  zein,  in 
which  one  or  more  of  the  necessary  units  are  lacking, 
can  never  be  reconstructed  into  new  body  protein. 
Finally,  it  must  be  clear  that  when  the  units  are  in 
a  very  different  ratio  to  one  another  from  that  in 
which  they  exist  in  body  protein,  they  must  be  of 
inferior  nutritive  value,  since  large  quantities  must 
be  broken  up  in  order  to  yield  that  quantity  of  cer- 
tain units  necessary  for  the  construction  of  animal 
protein.  Such  inferior  proteins  occur  among  the 
plants.  Plant  proteins  are  eaten  by  the  ox  and  are 
reconstructed  into  beef  proteins,  with  the  oxidative 
elimination  of  the  excess  of  chemical  units  which  are 
unnecessary  for  the  structure  of  the  animal  cell.  In 
this  way  beef  protein  attains  a  higher  biological 


CONSTANT  NEED  OF  PROTEIN   19 

value  for  the  nutrition  of  man  than  is  possessed  by 
vegetable  proteins. 

The  body  of  an  average  man  weighing  156  pounds 
contains  about  30  pounds  of  protein  or  20  per  cent 
of  the  live  weight.  If  the  man  starves  he  will  lose 
5  parts  per  thousand  of  his  protein  store  daily.  If 
he  be  given  fat  and  carbohydrate  in  large  quantity, 
the  daily  loss  of  body  protein  may  be  reduced  to  2.5 
parts  per  thousand.  This  loss  of  body  protein  repre- 
sents the  irreducible  minimum  of  wear  and  tear  on 
the  constituent  parts  of  the  machinery  of  the  cells. 
Murlin  has  shown  that  this  minimal  destruction 
cannot  be  prevented  by  giving  gelatin  with  fat  and 
carbohydrates.  Gelatin  contains  many  of  the  struc- 
tural units  of  meat  protein  but  in  very  different  rela- 
tive amounts  and  it  contains  no  tyrosin,  cystin  or 
tryptophan.  It,  therefore,  has  not  the  chemical 
units  necessary  to  repair  the  worn-out  parts  of  the 
cell  machinery.  Murlin  found,  however,  that  if  this 
quantity  of  protein  which  constitutes  the  irreducible 
minimum  of  wear  and  tear  on  the  cells  was  added 
in  the  form  of  beef  heart  to  the  gelatin  diet,  the 
waste  of  body  protein  stopped  at  once.  He  found 
that  the  wheat  proteins  of  cracker  meal  were  far 
less  efficient  in  protecting  the  body  from  protein  loss 
than  were  the  proteins  contained  in  beef  heart. 

Thomas,  in  Rubner's  laboratory,  took  starch  and 
sugar  in  large  quantity  in  his  diet  and  determined 
the  minimal  loss  of  protein  under  these  circum- 


20  BASIS  OF  NUTRITION 

stances.  He  then  took  meat  equal  in  amount  to 
this  minimal  quantity  destroyed  and  found  that  if 
the  food  was  divided  into  six  portions  and  taken 
four  hours  apart,  there  was  no  loss  of  body  protein. 
These  experiments  show  how  necessary  it  is  that 
the  body  have  a  constant  replenishment  of  its  pro- 
tein store.  The  experiments  of  Thomas  were 
carried  still  further  and  showed  the  relative  bio- 
logical value  of  the  proteins  of  different  origin.  The 
following  minimal  amounts  were  required  to  protect 
body  protein  from  loss : 

Meat  protein   30  grams 

Milk  protein  31  grams 

Rice  protein   34  grams 

Potato   protein    38  grams 

Bean  protein   54  grams 

Bread  protein 76  grams 

Indian  corn  protein 102  grams 

There  can  be  no  doubt  whatever  as  regards  the 
superior  value  of  meat,  fish,  egg  and  milk  proteins 
over  those  of  bread,  beans  and  Indian  corn.  The 
proteins  of  rice  and  potato,  however,  hold  an  inter- 
mediate position. 

Such  facts  as  these  should  make  it  possible  to 
classify  proteins  into  groups  according  to  their 
physiological  value.  Milk  is  sold  in  New  York  as 
of  three  grades,  A,  B  and  C.  In  like  manner  the 
proteins  of  the  food  stuffs  could  be  labelled  A,  B 


CONSTANT  NEED  OF  PROTEIN       21 

and  C  according  to  their  physiological  value,  and  to 
group  D  might  belong  gelatin  and  some  other  pro- 
teins which  cannot  replace  the  body  protein  that  is 
continually  wearing  away. 

The  question  will  at  once  be  asked,  Why  do  the 
vegetable  proteins  behave  differently  from  meat  and 
milk  proteins?  The  answer  is  given  by  the  work  of 
the  American  investigators,  Osborne  and  Mendel. 
Osborne,  for  years,  has  prepared  vegetable  proteins 
in  their  purest  form.  He  has  found,  for  instance, 
that  the  principal  proteins  in  wheat  are  two  in  num- 
ber, existing  in  almost  equal  amounts,  called  wheat 
glutenin  and  wheat  gliadin.  Glutenin,  on  analysis, 
yields  about  the  same  integral  chemical  substances 
as  casein.  Gliadin,  the  alcohol-soluble  wheat  pro- 
tein, does  not  contain  the  unit  known  as  lysin ;  and 
it  contains  37  per  cent  of  glutamic  acid,  of  which 
substance  milk  and  muscle  protein  contain  only 
about  10  per  cent.  Osborne  argued  from  these  facts 
that  wheat  gliadin  would  not  be  as  valuable  in  nutri- 
tion as  milk  protein.  The  question  was,  how  to  com- 
pare the  physiological  value  of  the  different  proteins. 
The  method  adopted  was  to  feed  young  albino  rats, 
just  weaned,  with  a  diet  containing  milk  sugar,  fat, 
milk  salts  and  the  protein  to  be  tested,  and  then  to 
observe  the  curve  of  growth  of  the  rats  and  see  if 
it  were  normal.  When  casein  was  the  protein  added 
to  the  diet,  the  rats  showed  a  usual  rate  of  growth 
and  lived  a  year  and  more  without  the  slightest 


22  BASIS  OF  NUTRITION 

abnormality.  It  was  found  that  the  growth  took 
place  freely  when  15  per  cent  of  the  calories  in  the 
diet  were  in  the  form  of  protein.  With  white  mice, 
on  the  contrary,  nearly  25  per  cent  of  the  calories  in 
the  diet  had  to  be  in  protein,  if  the  normal  develop- 
ment of  these  smaller  and  more  rapidly  growing 
organisms  was  to  be  provided  for.  These  figures 
may  be  contrasted  with  7  per  cent  of  calories  in  pro- 
tein in  human  milk,  which  adequately  provides  for 
the  growth  of  the  infant.  The  diet  of  rats  required 
3  per  cent  of  milk  salts  whereas  mice  required  6.8 
per  cent  for  proper  growth.  These,  therefore,  are 
factors  of  considerable  importance. 

Not  only  casein  but  also  lactalbumin  of  milk, 
ovalbumin  of  egg,  edestin  of  the  hemp  seed,  and 
glutenin  of  wheat,  were  able,  each  in  itself,  to  be 
an  all-sufficient  source  of  protein  supply  when  fur- 
nished with  the  diet  of  fat  carbohydrate  and  milk 
salts  above  described. 

Wheat  glutenin,  therefore,  is  an  adequate  pro- 
tein providing  for  maintenance  and  growth.  How- 
ever, when  gliadin  from  wheat  was  the  protein  given 
to  rats,  growth  was  almost  inhibited.  The  weight 
was  maintained  but  the  animals  were  dwarfed.  The 
capacity  for  normal  growth  was  present,  for  addi- 
tion to  the  diet  of  an  adequate  protein  like  casein 
caused  normal  growth  at  any  time,  even  though  the 
change  in  the  diet  was  made  after  the  time  when  full 
growth  would  have  been  attained  under  conditions 


CONSTANT  NEED  OF  PROTEIN       23 

of  normal  nutrition.  Furthermore,  addition  of  the 
missing  protein  unit  lysin  to  the  gliadin  diet  caused 
the  rats  to  grow.  This  analysis  shows  that  gliadin, 
which  represents  nearly  half  the  protein  of  wheat, 
is  of  inferior  food  quality  not  only  on  account  of  its 
large  content  of  glutamic  acid  but  also  because  it 
lacks  a  necessary  letter  of  the  protein  alphabet, 
lysin.  It  interprets  the  results  of  Thomas,  which 
show  that  it  requires  more  protein  in  bread  to  pro- 
tect the  body  from  protein  loss  than  it  does  when 
milk  or  meat  are  ingested.  Other  vegetable  proteins 
such  as  hordein  from  barley  and  gliadin  from  rye 
behaved  like  wheat  gliadin. 

Indian  corn  contains  proteins,  among  which  are 
glutenin  and  zein,  the  latter  constituting  a  little  over 
half  the  protein  in  the  corn.  When  corn  glutenin 
was  given  as  the  protein  in  the  rat's  dietary,  normal 
growth  was  recorded.  However,  when  the  alcohol 
soluble  zein  was  given,  the  rats  lost  in  weight  and 
died  unless  a  change  in  diet  afforded  relief.  Zein 
is  a  protein  which  is  like  gelatin  in  that  it  contains  no 
tryptophan.  Such  a  protein  can  never  form  new 
tissue,  nor  protect  body  tissue  from  its  normal  wear 
and  tear,  so  the  rat  must  perforce  succumb.  The 
remarkable  verification  of  this  theory  lies  in  the 
fact  that  the  addition  of  the  missing  tryptophan  to 
the  zein  diet  of  rats  or  mice,  either  greatly  prolongs 
their  lives  or  may  even  cause  them  to  maintain 
their   weight    (Gowland   Hopkins,   Ruth   Wheeler, 


24  BASIS  OF  NUTRITION 

Osborne  and  Mendel).  These  experiments  show- 
why  corn  proteins  are  not  the  physiological  equiva- 
lent of  meat  protein  in  nutrition. 

Phaseolin  is  a  protein  found  in  the  kidney  bean 
and  behaves  like  zein  in  nutrition,  failing  completely 
to  maintain  the  body  weight  of  the  rats  which  have 
received  it.  It  may,  therefore,  be  considered  a  pro- 
tein lacking  in  some  chemical  unit. 

The  New  Haven  investigators  point  out  how  a 
single  protein  like  casein  can  cause  normal  growth 
involving  the  production  of  all  the  various  body 
proteins,  such  as  hemaglobin,  other  blood  proteins, 
elastin,  collagen,  the  keratin  of  skin  and  hair  and  so 
forth,  and  even  the  complex  nucleo-proteins  also. 

Casein  does  not  contain  glycocoll  but  glycocoll 
may  be  manufactured  from  it  within  the  animal 
organism.  The  body  cannot,  however,  make  tryp- 
tophan from  gelatin  or  from  zein,  hence  these  can 
never  form  body  protein  or  be  used  in  its  repair. 

The  proteins  of  rice  and  potatoes  are  scarcely 
known  because  Osborne  has  not  yet  analyzed  them. 

Enough  has  been  said  to  give  the  reason  why  meat 
proteins  are  of  greater  physiological  value  in  the 
diet  of  man  than  are  vegetable  proteins.  It  is 
evident,  however,  that  if  enough  bread  or  enough 
corn  be  taken,  a  sufficient  quantity  of  their  content 
of  the  more  valuable  proteins  will  be  obtained.  The 
ox  merely  takes  these  miscellaneous  and  variably 
constituted  proteins  and   rearranges  their  constit- 


CONSTANT  NEED  OF  PROTEIN       25 

uent  units  into  his  own  flesh,  which  is  in  composi- 
tion approximately  like  our  own.  In  like  manner 
the  cow  forms  casein,  a  complete  food  protein,  avail- 
able both  for  maintenance  and  growth. 

Protein  is  usually  taken  in  excess  of  that  bare 
requirement  which  is  measured  by  the  quantity 
necessary  to  repair  the  tissue.  This  excess  is 
oxidized  and  used  as  fuel  just  as  are  fat  and  carbo- 
hydrates. Protein  has  one  property  out  of  all  pro- 
portion to  that  possessed  by  the  other  food  stuffs :  it 
very  largely  increases  the  production  of  heat  in  the 
body.  Individuals  maintained  on  a  low  protein  diet 
may  suffer  intensely  from  the  cold.  A  good  piece 
of  beefsteak  or  roast  beef  will  put  the  heat  produc- 
tion on  a  higher  level,  and  a  person  going  out  of 
doors  on  a  cold  day  after  a  meal  high  in  protein  does 
not  feel  the  cold.  For  the  same  reason,  on  a  hot 
summer  day,  meat  will  be  avoided. 

One  may  cause  the  heat  production  of  a  dog  to 
double  by  giving  a  large  quantity  of  meat.  This 
action  is  due  to  the  fact  that  many  of  the  chemical 
units  produced  in  the  digestion  of  meat  act  to  stimu- 
late the  heat  production  in  the  animal.  Some  of 
these  individual  chemical  units  of  which  protein  is 
composed  have  been  fed  to  a  dog  and  have  been 
found  to  increase  the  heat  production  in  the  same 
way  as  does  ingested  meat.  Glycocoll  is  the  simplest 
of  these  units.  It  causes  a  great  rise  in  heat  pro- 
duction.   In  diabetes  ingested  glycocoll  is  completely 


26  BASIS  OF  NUTRITION 

converted  into  sugar  without  undergoing  oxidation. 
When  thus  given  in  diabetes  glycocoll  still  causes  an 
increased  heat  production  although  it  is  not  oxidized. 
Hence  it  acts  as  a  chemical  stimulus  and  not  in 
virtue  of  its  energy  content. 

This  heat-increasing  property  of  protein  has  been 
called  its  specific  dynamic  action  (Rubner).  This 
action  may  be  effected  by  all  kinds  of  proteins,  by 
those  of  meat,  fish,  eggs,  milk,  and  such  incomplete 
proteins  as  gelatin.  To  obtain  the  warming  effect  it 
is  not  necessary  to  purchase  beef,  a  relatively  costly 
article  of  diet. 

The  quantity  of  protein  desirable  in  the  dietary- 
had  best  be  given  consideration  after  discussion  of 
the  dietary  habits  of  mankind.  It  is  sufficient  for 
the  present  to  realize  that  protein  is  necessary  to 
maintain  tissue  in  repair,  to  promote  growth  and 
that  when  taken  above  the  requirements  for  these 
purposes  it  stimulates  the  organism  to  a  higher  level 
of  heat  production. 


IV 
HABITS  OF  DIET 

There  is  a  wide  diversity  of  dietary  habits  in  dif- 
ferent parts  of  the  world.  The  inhabitants  of  the 
tropics  live  from  the  fruits  which  grow  readily 
without  especial  cultivation.  There  being  no  reason 
to  work  hard  for  food  and  lodging,  there  is  no  in- 
centive to  struggle  and  no  advance  in  civilization. 
The  struggle  for  food  and  lodging  in  the  zones  of 
moderate  temperature  has  strengthened  the  body 
and  mind  of  man.  The  food  of  the  temperate  zones 
is  usually  a  diet  containing  a  mixture  of  animal  and 
vegetable  substances. 

A  race  of  human  beings  which  is  practically  car- 
nivorous in  its  habits  is  the  Eskimo.  Recent  studies 
(August  and  Marie  Krogh :  A  Study  of  the  Diet  and 
Metabolism  of  Eskimos,  Copenhagen,  1913)  show 
that  the  Eskimo  hunter  may  rise  early  in  the  morn- 
ing, drink  a  cup  of  water,  of  soup  or  of  coffee.  He 
then  goes  out  without  food  or  he  may  take  a  small 
bit  of  dried  or  frozen  meat.  Returning  at  three  or 
four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  he  fills  himself  with 
meat  to  his  utmost  capacity  as  soon  as  it  can  be 
cooked.  He  then  sleeps  for  two  hours,  after  which 
he  enjoys  himself  socially  and  before  retiring  for 


28  BASIS  OF  NUTRITION 

the  night  takes  a  second  smaller  meal,  usually  of 
fish. 

The  principal  articles  of  diet  are  seal  meat  and 
the  meat  of  reindeer,  walruses  and  whales.  The 
skin  of  young  whales  is  esteemed  a  delicacy  and  this 
has  been  found  by  Bertelsen  to  contain  a  very  large 
quantity  of  animal  starch  (glycogen).  The  only 
native  vegetables  are  whortleberries,  young  shoots 
of  angelica,  and  seaweed  which  is  eaten  with 
mussels. 

When  game  is  plentiful  large  quantities  of  meat 
and  fat  are  eaten.  Rink  reports  that  young  robust 
people  may  ingest  as  much  as  four  kilograms  (9 
pounds)  of  meat  daily  during  the  time  when  seals 
are  plentiful.  In  this  way  the  Eskimos  store  ample 
fat  in  their  bodies.  Although  this  people  are  the 
greatest  meat  eaters  in  the  world  there  is  practically 
no  gout  among  them.  Also  there  is  no  quarreling. 
If  two  persons  do  not  like  each  other  they  simply 
move  away  from  one  another,  but  a  blow  is  never 
struck.  They  have  great  capacity  for  physical 
endurance  and  for  resistance  to  external  cold.  On 
sledge  journeys  in  the  north  during  the  winter  when 
the  temperature  is  — 30°  C,  they  may  take  a  full 
meal  of  frozen  meat  and  blubber  at  night.  The  first 
result  is  a  feeling  of  extreme  cold  and  shivering,  but 
after  half  an  hour  the  stimulating  effect  of  the  large 
absorption  of  protein  (meat)  upon  the  heat  produc- 
tion makes  itself   felt  and  the  Eskimo  may  then 


HABITS  OF  DIET  29 

sleep  in  the  open  with  no  other  extra  protection  than 
his  sled  which  is  put  up  as  a  shield  from  the  wind. 
The  same  kind  of  food  is  also  taken  by  the  dogs 
accompanying  the  party. 

If  one  turns  from  the  carnivorous  Eskimo  to  the 
population  of  India,  China,  Japan  and  the  Philip- 
pine Islands,  one  finds  that  the  great  staple  of  diet 
is  rice.  Rice  is  a  material  which  is  almost  tasteless 
in  itself  but  which  can  be  prepared  in  many  ways 
and  may  be  eaten  with  many  diverse  flavors. 

The  poorest  families  of  Southern  India  live  essen- 
tially on  rice  to  which  is  added  a  small  quantity  of 
fish.  Rice  can  be  raised  with  little  effort  but  poverty 
excludes  meat  from  the  diet.  McCay  (The  Protein 
Element  in  Nutrition)  states  that  it  may  be  accepted 
that  these  rice-eating  inhabitants  of  Bengal,  whose 
diet  is  poor  in  protein,  are  incapable  of  performing  a 
really  hard  day's  work,  the  explanation  being  an 
incomplete  development  of  muscular  tissue.  It 
seems  that  the  tropical  heat  of  India  yields  nourish- 
ment as  freely  as  it  may  be  obtained  in  Greenland  by 
the  Eskimo,  yet  physical  power  is  lacking  in  the 
inhabitants  of  the  country. 

Among  the  hill  tribes  of  India  and  wherever 
else  animal  protein  is  taken  with  rice,  a  higher 
physical  development  is  found. 

The  poorest  Philippinos  also  live  mainly  on  rice 
but  they  add  sufficient  fish  to  furnish  an  adequate 
diet.     Aron  (Philippine  Journal  of  Science,  1909) 


30  BASIS  OF  NUTRITION 

estimates  that  the  daily  cost  of  this  diet  per  person 
in  the  town  of  Taytay  amounts  to  12^  centavos  or 
6^4  cents. 

The  most  celebrated  European  standard  diet  is 
that  of  Voit  designed  for  a  laboring  man  working 
hard  during  a  period  of  nine  or  ten  hours.  This 
diet  contains  118  grams  of  protein,  56  grams  of  fat 
and  500  grams  of  carbohydrates.  Of  the  118  grams 
of  protein,  46  are  furnished  in  230  grams  (one-half 
pound)  of  butcher  meat.  The  quantity  of  meat  in 
the  ration  was  determined  from  the  finding  that  each 
inhabitant  of  Munich  consumed  daily  an  average  of 
205  grams  of  meat  and  25  grams  of  fowl  and  fish. 
The  other  factors  were  determined  by  statistics  and 
they  were  verified  by  examining  the  diets  of  various 
laboring  men.  The  quantity  of  fat  was  put  low  in 
the  diet  on  account  of  its  cost. 

Volumes  have  been  written  concerning  the  neces- 
sity of  the  quantity  of  protein  in  Voit's  dietary. 
Voit,  himself,  showed  that  a  man  could  exist  with 
half  that  quantity  but  in  the  violent  debate  that 
centered  around  this  question  Voit  took  no  personal 
part. 

When  comparison  is  made  of  the  diet  of  the 
Eskimo,  the  Bengali  and  the  laboring  man  in 
Europe,  the  following  distribution  of  the  various 
nutritive  elements  is  found. 


HABITS  OF  DIET  31 

Calories  in  fo 
Weight  Protein       Total  Carbohy- 

in  kgrn.    grams      calories    Protein    Fat      drates 

Eskimo     65        282        2,604*        44        48         8 

Bengali   50  52        2,390  9        10        81 

European   ....     70        118        3,055  16        17        67 

The  figures  regarding  the  Eskimo  are  taken 
from  Krogh,  who  believes  that  they  are  not  10  per 
cent  from  the  actual  values.  The  carbohydrate 
reported  is  largely  that  of  the  glycogen  content  of 
the  flesh  eaten.  The  Eskimo  takes  five  times  the 
amount  of  protein  eaten  by  a  Bengali  and  two  and 
a  half  times  the  amount  eaten  by  a  European. 
Yet  he  lives  without  acquiring  uric  acid  diseases 
(Krogh).  The  specific  dynamic  action  or  heat- 
stimulating  property  of  protein,  as  well  as  the 
Eskimo's  coat  of  subcutaneous  fat  enables  him  to 
bear  extremes  of  cold.  The  acidosis  which  arises 
when  large  quantities  of  fat  are  ingested  without 
carbohydrates,  is  in  all  probability  counteracted  by 
a  large  production  of  sugar  from  the  fragments  of 
broken  down  protein.  The  production  of  sugar 
from  glycocoll  has  been  remarked  upon  and  serves 
as  a  typical  illustration  of  this  process.  Health  and 
strength,  therefore,  are  not  wanting  when  in  the 
Arctic  regions  a  carnivorous  diet  is  the  mainstay  of 
life. 

♦Statistical  average.  The  quantity  of  seaweed  and  mussels  eaten 
could  not  be  controlled. 


32  BASIS  OF  NUTRITION 

As  regards  the  Bengali,  it  seems  that  his  ration  of 
rice  and  fish  does  not  serve  to  maintain  him  in  good 
condition,  whereas  his  neighbors  in  the  hills  who 
partly  live  upon  the  flocks  they  raise  are  in  much 
better  physical  condition. 

Voit's  ration  contains  about  four  times  the  mini- 
mal quantity  of  protein  necessary  for  the  mainte- 
nance of  life.  Voit's  dietary  has  been  condemned  as 
financially  extravagant  and  even  physiologically 
harmful.  Evidently  many  millions  of  dollars  could 
be  saved  in  the  army  and  navy  were  the  protein  of 
the  ration  cut  in  two.  Rubner  recently  appeared 
twice  before  the  German  authorities  to  protest 
against  such  reduction.  He  believes  that  there 
should  always  be  an  excess  of  protein  constructive 
material,  so  that  if  after  physical  exhaustion  there 
is  depletion  of  the  glycogen  reserves,  under  which 
circumstances  the  wear  and  tear  on  the  cell  protein 
is  increased,  there  may  be  building  units  in  reserve 
to  quickly  restore  the  tissue  destroyed. 

For  a  laboring  man  to  take  the  minimal  quantity 
of  protein  in  the  diet  is,  therefore,  not  desirable. 
Meltzer  has  truly  pointed  out  that  eating  protein  in 
quantities  above  the  minimal  requirement  is  one  of 
the  many  "factors  of  safety"  in  human  life. 

Moreover,  it  would  be  a  difficult  proposition  to 
arrange  a  low  protein  dietary  for  such  laboring  men 
as  farmers,  for  example.  Rubner  points  out  that 
the  staple  diet  of  the  robust  and  healthy  Bavarian 


HABITS  OF  DIET  33 

peasant  has  been  milk,  cheese,  bread  and  vegetables, 
and  this  for  many  centuries.  Such  a  diet,  even 
though  it  contain  no  meat,  is  not  a  diet  low  in 
protein. 

On  the  Texas  cattle  ranches  twenty  years  ago, 
although  there  were  thousands  of  cattle,  there  was 
little  fresh  meat  and  never  any  milk.  Fresh  meat 
was  considered  too  expensive.  Coyotes  destroyed 
the  chickens,  so  eggs  were  not  available.  The  staple 
foods  were  boiled  beans,  bacon  (called  sow-belly), 
soda  biscuits,  molasses,  canned  tomatoes,  black 
coffee  and  a  large  dish  of  very  greasy  flour  gravy. 
The  proteins  were  therefore  largely  those  contained 
in  beans  and  wheat.  The  Texan  cow  puncher  raised 
beef  for  the  inhabitants  of  the  cities  but  he  rarely 
ate  it  himself.  Yet  no  one  could  deny  that  he  was 
not  physically  fit.  A  traveler  on  arriving  at  one  of 
the  ranch  houses  called  out,  "Hello,  can  I  stay  here 
all  night  ?"  The  answer  was  usually  in  the  affirma- 
tive, and  a  passing  stranger  thus  received  was  given 
the  best  in  the  house,  always  without  money  and 
without  price,  and  when  he  departed  was  invited 
to  "come  again." 

The  question  may  be  asked  about  the  relative 
value  of  beef,  veal,  mutton  and  chicken.  These  are 
frequently  differentiated  by  the  physician  in  pre- 
scribing for  his  patient.  Experiments  involving  the 
ingestion  of  these  various  forms  of  meat  give  no 
information  that  one  kind  is  more  readily  absorbed 


34  BASIS  OF  NUTRITION 

than  another.  Chemical  analysis  shows  no  differ- 
ence. The  substances  which  are  convertible  into 
uric  acid  are  present  in  all  these  meat  foods  in  about 
the  same  quantity.  It  resolves  itself  into  a  question 
of  habit,  personal  taste  and  the  local  capacity  to 
cook.  In  Germany,  light  colored  meats  such  as 
chicken  and  veal  are  considered  digestible  and  good 
food  for  the  sick.  Red  meat  like  beef  is  deemed 
indigestible.  A  German  professor  of  medicine  re- 
marked in  his  lectures,  "Curiously  enough,  in 
America,  beef  is  considered  digestible  and  veal  very 
indigestible."  Veal  is  well  cooked  in  Germany  and 
greatly  liked.  The  cooking  of  beef,  on  the  contrary, 
is  one  of  their  unsolved  problems.  These  facts, 
remembered  in  connection  with  the  great  value  of 
milk  as  a  protein  food,  should  be  held  in  the  mind  of 
everyone  who  wishes  to  inflict  his  personal  dietetic 
whims  and  fancies  upon  his  long-suffering  friends. 
Ultimately  the  question  is  a  question  of  flavor.  Man 
chooses  what  he  likes  best,  and,  taken  in  moderation, 
what  he  likes  best  he  digests  best.  Hence  the 
demand  for  meat,  which  is  not  necessary  and  which 
could  be  largely  replaced  by  the  cheaper  and  equally 
valuable  protein  of  milk,  or  even  by  the  proteins  of 
wheat  and  of  beans  taken  together. 

Rubner  points  out  how  the  consumption  of  meat 
per  head  of  population  in  Germany  has  risen  three 
and  a  half  fold  during  a  hundred  years  and  now 
approximates  that  consumed  in  England  and  in  the 


HABITS  OF  DIET  35 

United  States.  In  1813  the  consumption  of  meat  in 
Germany  per  inhabitant  was  about  at  the  level  of 
that  in  Italy  today.  The  large  use  of  meat  has  come 
with  the  concentration  of  population  in  the  cities. 
The  same  transformation  has  taken  place  in  the 
United  States.  In  1820  only  5  per  cent  of  the  popu- 
lation lived  in  cities  of  8,000  and  over,  whereas,  in 
1910,  33  per  cent  lived  in  such  cities.  This  third  of 
the  population  demands  meat  in  increasing  quantity 
despite  its  increasing  price. 


V 
THE  CURIOUS  DISEASE  OF  BERI-BERI 

It  has  been  known  for  a  long  time  that  life  cannot 
be  maintained  on  an  absolutely  pure  mixture  of 
salts,  fats,  carbohydrates  and  protein.  Osborne  and 
Mendel  could  not  prepare  a  diet  which  was  chemi- 
cally pure  in  all  its  constituents  and  still  maintained 
life.  In  most  of  their  successful  experiments  the 
ash  of  the  diet  was  derived  from  a  powder  obtained 
by  evaporating  milk,  the  protein  content  of  which 
had  been  almost  entirely  removed.  They  have 
recently  reported  experiments  on  rats  in  which 
growth  had  come  to  a  standstill  when  the  fat  in  the 
diet  consisted  of  lard,  but  in  which  rapid  growth 
ensued  when  butter  fat  was  substituted  for  lard. 
Butter  fat  must  therefore  contain  something  which 
lard  does  not  contain. 

The  human  organism  is  extremely  sensitive  to 
certain  substances  in  minute  quantities.  Thus, 
epinephrin,  the  active  constituent  of  the  suprarenal 
glands,  is  present  in  the  blood  in  1  part  in  100,000,- 
000  and  this  is  essential  to  life.  One  may  also 
recall  the  marked  influence  on  growth  exerted  by 
the  thymus  gland  during  youth.  How  profoundly 
important  the  secretions  of  the  internal  glands  may 


THE  DISEASE  OF  BERI-BERI  37 

become  has  been  vividly  demonstrated  by  Guder- 
natsch,  who  gave  tadpoles  thymus  gland  and  noted 
their  rapid  growth  and  delayed  metamorphosis, 
whereas  when  thyroid  gland  was  given  suppressed 
growth  and  premature  metamorphosis  into  pigmy 
frogs  took  place. 

The  profound  effect  of  small  amounts  of  materials 
formed  in  the  various  internal  glands  is  well 
established.  However,  it  has  only  recently  appeared 
probable  that,  in  order  to  maintain  the  organism  in 
condition,  a  small  quantity  of  something  not  hereto- 
fore recognized  must  be  present  in  the  food. 

Eykman,  in  1897,  called  attention  to  the  fact  that 
the  disease  beri-beri  was  prevalent  among  those  rice- 
eating  nations  which  partook  of  rice  prepared  in  a 
certain  way.  The  Bengali  eats  unpolished  rice,  that 
is,  rice  of  which  the  red  husk  or  pericarp  has  not 
been  removed  and  he  does  not  suffer  from  beri-beri. 
When  the  native  of  the  Philippines  pounds  his  rice 
in  a  large  mortar  with  his  own  hands,  the  milled 
product  is  never  so  thoroughly  freed  of  its  husk  as 
happens  to  that  milled  by  machinery  and  hence  these 
natives  are  partly  protected  from  the  disease.  A 
diet  which  is  based  almost  exclusively  on  white  rice 
causes  beri-beri  with  certainty.  Eykman  also  found 
that  when  chickens  or  pigeons  were  fed  on  white 
rice  they  developed  a  disease  similar  to  beri-beri. 
General  weakness,  with  paralysis  of  the  legs  and 
wings,  due  to  a  polyneuritis,  developed,  which  could 


38  BASIS  OF  NUTRITION 

be  cured  by  a  change  in  diet.  Here,  fortunately, 
were  experimental  animals  which  could  be  used  as 
a  means  of  finding  a  cure  for  the  trouble.  Un- 
polished rice,  or  polished  rice  when  meat  or  beans 
were  added  to  the  diet,  did  not  induce  the  disease. 
Polished  rice  given  with  rice  polishings  prevented 
the  disease. 

It  has  been  stated  that  in  Irish  and  sweet  pota- 
toes, and  in  many  common  breakfast  foods,  there  is 
not  enough  neuritis-preventing  substances  preient  to 
preserve  health.  Also  meat,  when  sterilized  at  a 
high  temperature,  loses  these  materials.  The  desira- 
bility of  sterilization  by  boiling  of  milk  for  infants 
has  recently  been  questioned  by  Funk  on  account  of 
the  liability  to  destruction  of  these  anti-neuritic 
substances. 

Funk  has  sought  to  isolate  the  substances  which 
prevent  beri-beri,  which  he  has  termed  the  vita- 
mines.  From  100  kilograms  (220  pounds)  of  dry 
yeast  he  prepared  1.6  grams  of  a  crystalline  sub- 
stance which,  if  given  in  doses  of  4  to  8  milligrams 
to  neuritic  pigeons,  cures  them  in  from  two  to  three 
hours.  This  substance  on  purification  yielded  three 
materials  called  Substance  I,  Substance  II  and  nico- 
tinic acid.  Substance  II  was  inactive.  Substance  I 
and  nicotinic  acid  were  severally  of  little  value  in 
curing  the  polyneuritis  of  pigeons,  but  when  3  milli- 
grams of  the  one  and  2  milligrams  of  the  other  were 
administered  together,  the  diseased  pigeons  were 


THE  DISEASE  OF  BERI-BERI  39 

cured  in  two  to  four  hours.  Rice  polishings  yielded 
these  same  two  substances. 

It  therefore  appears  that  a  class  of  vitamines  exist 
in  the  vegetable  kingdom,  and  that  these  are  neces- 
sary to  the  normal  growth  and  nutrition  of  animal 
tissue.  They  become  a  part  of  animal  tissue,  so  that 
if  meat  be  eaten,  their  direct  ingestion  from  the 
plant  becomes  unnecessary.  They  enter  into  normal 
milk.  If  the  nursing  mother  has  beri-beri  the 
infant  acquires  it  also. 

The  authorities  consider  scurvy,  the  Miiller- 
Barlow  disease,  and  possibly  pellagra  and  rickets 
as  of  analogous  origin. 

Finally,  in  this  connection,  it  is  well  to  utter  a 
warning  to  the  effect  that  beri-beri  and  scurvy  do 
not  occur  in  the  United  States.  They  only  occur 
when  a  one-sided  diet  deficient  in  vitamines  exists. 
It  is  well  to  remember  that  the  American  Associa- 
tion of  Tropical  Medicine,  in  May  of  this  year, 
denounced  legislation  in  the  United  States  against 
polished  rice  as  unnecessary.  Dr.  W.  P.  Chamber- 
lain, Major,  Medical  Corps,  U.  S.  Army,  who 
worked  experimentally  on  this  subject  for  two  years 
in  the  Philippines  and  saw  the  disease  entirely  dis- 
appear among  the  Philippine  Scouts,  advises  against 
any  such  legislation,  and  states  that  the  advocacy 
of  unnecessary'  legislation  weakens  the  authority  of 
the  medical  profession  upon  sanitary  matters. 

It  has  thus  far  been  shown  that  nutrition  means 


40  BASIS  OF  NUTRITION 

fuel  for  the  machinery,  new  parts  with  which  to 
repair  the  machine  and  minute  quantities  of  vita- 
mines  which  produce  a  harmonious  interaction 
between  the  materials  in  the  food  and  their  host. 


VI 

CRITERIA  OF  THE  MONETARY  VALUE 
OF  FOODS 


The  daily  press  five  months  ago  contained  col- 
umns of  matter  regarding  the  high  price  of  food 
materials.  Not  only  foods  but  commodities  in 
general  were  at  the  highest  prices  in  thirty  years. 
Some  idea  of  the  rise  in  food  prices  is  indicated 
below. 

Increased  cost  Increased  cost 

in    per  cent  in    per  cent 

on    Feb.    15,  on    Feb.   15, 

1913,     above  1913,     above 

ave'ge  price  costoneyear 

1890-99  in  39  before  in  N. 

cities,  U.S.A.  Y.  City 

Sirloin  steak   61  17 

Round  steak 85  18 

Rib  roast 63  17 

Pork  chops    89  24 

Smoked  ham   69  13 

Pure  lard    62  10 

Hens     67  8 

Wheat  flour  27  10 

Corn  meal 56  0 

Fresh  eggs   63  18* 

White  potatoes   24  no  data 

Fresh  milk  40  1 

Since  the  efficiency  of  labor  depends  upon  its 
energy  and  constant  repair,  it  is  certainly  of  no 

♦Decrease. 


42  BASIS  OF  NUTRITION 

small  moment  that  the  citizen  should  know  how 
best  to  maintain  the  machine  at  a  maximum  of  effi- 
ciency. Not  only  that,  but  in  times  of  trouble  he 
should  know  where  to  turn  to  find  nourishment  in 
the  form  which  is  best  and  cheapest. 

Who  will  give  him  this  information?  Will  the 
manufacturer  of  canned  tomatoes  tell  him  that 
tomatoes  are  valueless  in  his  extremity?  No,  not 
unless  the  manufacturer  is  forced  to  do  so.  And 
how  can  the  manufacturer  be  forced  to  give  this 
information?  By  being  compelled  by  law  to  label 
his  can:  "This  can  contains  x  calories  of  which  y 
per  cent  are  in  proteins  of  grade  C."  (Consult  also 
Murlin,  Popular  Science  Monthly,  October,  1913.) 
If,  through  the  medium  of  the  schools  and  the  press, 
everyone  knew  that  a  man  of  sedentary  occupation 
required  2,500  calories  and  a  laboring  man  3,000 
calories  and  more,  no  one  suffering  from  want 
would  spend  his  money  for  a  can  of  tomatoes  which 
is  little  else  than  flavored  water. 

It  has  been  estimated  that  a  family  of  five,  includ- 
ing the  father,  a  clerk,  the  mother  who  does  the 
housework,  and  three  children,  nine  and  six  years 
and  one  month  old  respectively,  requires  7,750  cal- 
ories per  day.  (Lusk:  Food  at  Fifty  Cents  a  Day, 
New  York  Evening  Post,  February  8,  1913.)  This 
is  probably  within  10  per  cent  of  the  true  value. 

To  provide  a  diet  containing  7,750  calories,  5  per 
cent  of  which  were  in  animal  proteins  of  grade  A 


MONETARY  VALUE  OF  FOODS        43 

and  10  per  cent  of  which  were  in  vegetable  proteins 
of  grade  C  (bread),  would  have  cost  as  follows  on 
January  28,  1913,  in  the  New  York  markets : 

Cents 

Bread  -f-   %  pound  salt  cod  4/ 

Bread  +   %  pound  smoked  ham   48 

Bread  -f-   %  pound  cheese    51 

Bread  -f-  2]^  pounds  milk    S3 

Bread  +  P/2  pounds  loin  pork 56 

Bread  +  1%  pounds  leg  of  mutton   56 

Bread  +  Hi  pounds  cod  steak   (fresh) 58 

Bread  -f-  1%  pounds  sirloin  beef    66 

Bread  -f-  l1^  pounds  turkey    78 

If  cornmeal,  oatmeal,  dried  beans  or  rice  had 
been  used  instead  of  bread,  these  prices  would  have 
been  lower,  whereas  potatoes  would  have  slightly 
increased  them. 

These  figures  are  for  the  great  staples  of  diet. 
It  is  obvious  that  the  cost  of  fuel  for  an  adult 
requiring  2,500  calories  would  be  one-third  the  cost 
for  the  family  or  an  amount  not  exceeding  twenty 
cents  a  day  at  the  market  price  of  the  fresh  mate- 
rials. This  being  true  of  the  staple  products  of  a 
dietary,  it  is  obvious  that  when  more  than  an  aver- 
age of  eight  cents  is  expended  for  1,000  calories  of 
nutriment,  the  diet  must  include  luxuries. 

The  following  represents  the  market  price  in 
cents  of  1,000  calories  in  various  staple  foods: 


44  BASIS  OF  NUTRITION 

Cost  in  Cents  of  1,000  Calories 

Glucose    1% 

Cornmeal    2 

Wheat  flour   2% 

Oatmeal   2% 

Cane  sugar  2>% 

Dried    beans    4 

Salt  pork  (fat)   4% 

Rice    5 

Wheat  bread    5% 

Oleomargarine     7l/h 

Potatoes    TVi 

Butter  10 

Milk    10 

Smoked  ham    10% 

Cheese    11% 

Loin  pork   12% 

Mutton  (leg)   16% 

Salt  cod  1944 

Sirloin  beef    24 

Turkey     40 

Codfish  steak  (fresh)    42 

This  is  the  cost  of  nutritive  values  and  when  con- 
sidered in  relation  to  the  preceding  table,  which  in- 
cludes the  proper  amount  of  protein  for  a  family,  is 
of  the  greatest  economic  importance. 

It  is  evident  that  if  each  package  of  food  were 
sold  as  containing  a  stated  number  of  calories,  the 
widely  heralded  "food  value"  of  Postum,  for  exam- 
ple, would  "fold  its  tents  like  the  Arabs  and  as 
silently  steal  away." 


Cost  in  cents 

iinimum 

Maximum 

50 

70 

100 

140 

150 

210 

MONETARY  VALUE  OF  FOODS       45 

If  the  family  of  five,  before  mentioned,  keeps  a 
sen-ant  the  amount  of  food  increases  from  the 
equivalent  of  7,750  calories  to  10,250,  an  increase  of 
30  per  cent.  Three  servants  will  double  and  six 
servants  treble  the  food  bill.  One  can  thus  formu- 
late the  household  requirements : 


Calories 

Poor  family   7,750 

Well-to-do  15,500 

Wealthy    23.250 


Whatever  is  spent  above  these  amounts  is  paid  for 
waste  or  for  non-essentials  in  the  form  of  flavors 
of  high  price.  High  cost  may  also  be  due  to  car- 
nivorous indulgence  approximating  that  of  the 
Eskimo. 

The  variant  introduced  by  indulgence  in  meat  may 
be  thus  illustrated : 

Daily  cost  in  cents  to  furnish 
Poor       Well-to-do    Wealthy 
All  the  calories  are  in  family         family  family 

Wheat  bread  41  82  123 

Sirloin  steak   186  372  558 

Eggs    258  516  774 

Turkey     312  624  936 

(0  servants)    (3  servants^    (6  servants) 

It  is  not  probable  that  the  food  values  actually 
consumed  are  very  different   in  the  various   well- 


46  BASIS  OF  NUTRITION 

nourished     families.       Only    the    cost    can    vary 
enormously. 

The  cost  of  eggs  in  the  above  table  is  estimated 
at  the  low  figure  of  24  cents  a  dozen.  At  the  present 
moment  with  the  cost  of  fancy  fresh  eggs  at  75  cents 
a  dozen,  it  would  cost  the  wealthy  family  $24  a  day 
if  its  sustenance  were  solely  derived  from  eggs.  To 
support  the  three  differently  conditioned  families  on 
eggs  alone  would  require  129,  258  or  387  eggs  daily. 

Where  there  is  surplus  income  and  financial  limi- 
tations do  not  hamper  the  expenditure  for  food,  the 
subject-matter  of  this  paper  has  no  practical  bearing. 
When  each  individual  can  partake  of  nourishment 
in  accordance  with  the  dictates  of  a.  normal  appetite 
there  is  no  danger  of  undernutrition.  It  is,  how- 
ever, among  the  poor,  the  class  to  which  scientific 
knowledge  is  the  last  to  reach,  that  such  knowledge 
would  be  most  valuable.  Recently,  Miss  Dorothy 
Lindsay  made  a  report  concerning  the  diet  of  the 
working  classes  in  Glasgow.  Noel  Paton,  in  his 
preface  to  the  report,  asks  this  important  question, 
"If  a  suitable  diet  is  obtainable  and  is  obtained,  is 
it  procured  or  can  it  be  procured,  at  a  cost  low 
enough  to  leave  a  margin  sufficient  to  cover  the 
other  necessary  expenses  of  family  life,  with  some- 
thing over  for  those  pleasures  and  amenities  without 
which  the  very  continuance  of  life  is  of  doubtful 
value?" 

Miss  Lindsay  examined  the  dietary  habits  of  sixty 


MONETARY  VALUE  OF  FOODS       47 

families  whose  incomes  varied  from  $3.25  to  $15.00 
weekly.  Wherever  the  wage  was  above  $5.00  a 
week  the  family  was  adequately  nourished  and  the 
man  of  the  family  received  3,000  calories  daily, 
that  is  to  say,  enough  to  make  him  an  efficient  ma- 
chine. "Where  the  wage  fell  below  $5.00  a  week 
there  was  always  undernutrition.  The  staples  of 
food  were  bread,  potatoes,  milk,  sugar,  beef  and 
vegetables.  Little  use  was  made  of  cheaper  oatmeal, 
peas,  beans,  cheese  or  fish.  Oatmeal  was  used  in 
forty-six  out  of  sixty  families,  but  the  average 
amount  per  man  per  day  was  less  than  one  ounce 
(less  than  100  calories).  The  amount  spent  for 
food  varied  between  62  and  87  per  cent  of  the  total 
wage.  In  the  families  showing  an  average  of  87 
per  cent  expenditure  for  food,  the  father  was  a 
drinker  and  the  family  in  debt  for  the  rent.  It  was 
found  that  when  the  weight  of  a  child  at  a  given 
age  was  much  below  the  normal,  inadequate  diet 
was  almost  always  the  cause.  Miss  Lindsay  con- 
cludes that  one  of  the  main  contributing  factors  of 
malnutrition  among  the  poor  is  bad  marketing. 

The  experience  of  America  in  the  matter  of 
school  lunches  for  the  children  of  the  poor,  has 
shown  so  marked  an  improvement  in  their  physical 
and  mental  well-being,  that  it  is  reported  to  be  of 
demonstrable  economy  to  the  state  to  feed  the 
undernourished  children.  But  the  state  should  also 
teach  the  mother  the  value  of  bread  and  milk,  and 


48  BASIS  OF  NUTRITION 

that  weak  tea  cannot  take  the  place  of  milk  in  the 
nourishment  of  the  child. 

Recently  F.  C.  Gephart  of  the  Russell  Sage  Insti- 
tute of  Pathology  has  undertaken  a  study  into  the 
physiological  value  of  the  various  portions  of  food 
sold  over  the  counter  of  the  Childs  restaurants  in 
this  and  other  cities.  All  the  New  York  restaurants 
of  this  company  have  been  visited  and  of  those  in 
the  entire  country  about  70  per  cent.  This  is  not  the 
time  to  give  more  than  a  few  general  statements 
regarding  the  results.  For  obvious  reasons,  no 
knowledge  of  the  work  has  passed  beyond  the  con- 
fines of  the  laboratory  circle.  Samples  have  been 
analyzed  for  protein,  fat  and  carbohydrate ;  in  some 
instances  also  for  ash,  and  the  heat  of  combustion 
has  been  determined  in  each  case.  Four  hundred 
samples  in  all  have  been  collected  and  analyzed. 
For  comparative  standards  the  calories  in  bread  and 
vintage  champagne  have  been  selected,  neither  of 
which  was  purchased  in  the  restaurant.  The  fol- 
lowing table  shows  a  few  of  the  results : 


MONETARY  VALUE  OF  FOODS        49 


Food  Value  of  Portions,  in  Childs  Restaurants, 
Including  Bread  and  Butter  When  Served 


a 

Calories 

9! 
1)   <D 

a 

CO,      » 

5§ 

"5 

si 

33 1 

Cost  i 
cents 

1,000 
calori 

Bread*  

5 

933 

12 

933 

5 

Apple  pie 

5 

337 

5 

337 

15 

Boston    pork    and 

beans  

15 

828 

12 

276 

18 

Ham   sandwich . . . 

5 

170 

20 

170 

30 

Corned  beef  hash. 

15 

507 

14 

170 

30 

Beef   stew 

15 

461 

25 

154 

32 

Club  sandwich. . . . 

25 

409 

20 

82 

61 

Sliced  pineapple.  . 

5 

36 

46 

36 

138 

Tomatoes,   lettuce 

mayonnaise  .... 

20 

53 

16 

13 

385 

Pt.  of  champagne* 

2G0 

345 

0 

9 

588 

When  one  considers  this  table  in  the  light  of  the 
knowledge  that  the  average  workman  need  not 
expend  more  than  8  cents  per  1,000  calories  of 
energy,  it  is  perfectly  evident  that  Childs  restaurant 
is  not  a  charitable  undertaking,  but  rather  an  insti- 
tution for  men  of  moderate  means. 

The  extreme  variability  of  the  purchasing  power 
of  money  for  food  stands  here  exposed  in  the  lime- 
light. 

It  is  for  this  reason  that  the  government  should 
take  up  this  matter.     Suppose  the  pot  of  Boston 


*Not  purchased  in  the  restaurant. 


50  BASIS  OF  NUTRITION 

baked  beans,  as  sold,  were  guaranteed  to  contain 
1,000  calories,  12  per  cent  in  protein,  the  workman 
would  then  know  what  he  was  getting  for  his  money, 
if  he  only  were  taught  the  simplest  elements  of  the 
subject  of  nutrition. 

The  government  could  give  information  with 
regard  to  all  food  stuffs  sold  in  packages.  The 
determination  of  the  heat  of  combustion  of  a  dried 
sample  of  food  takes  fifteen  minutes.  Probably 
three  hours  would  suffice  to  make  a  complete  analy- 
sis by  a  government  expert.  The  manufacturer 
should  send  his  sample  can  to  the  Bureau  of  Chemis- 
try at  Washington,  declaring  that  to  be  his  standard 
and  requesting  information  regarding  his  label.  He 
should  pay  for  this  analysis  as  a  patentee  pays  for 
his  patent.  If  the  government,  at  any  time,  should 
find  the  manufacturer  selling  a  material  on  the 
market  of  different  character  than  the  standard 
deposited  with  the  government,  the  manufacturer 
should  be  heavily  fined. 

Complaint  is  made  by  the  manufacturers  of  foods 
and  patent  medicines,  that  in  other  countries  scien- 
tific men  sit  on  their  boards  of  directors  and  give 
advice.  In  this  country  this  sort  of  thing  is  rightly 
discountenanced.  Food  manufacturers  have  re- 
cently requested  a  group  of  scientific  men  to  meet 
as  a  board,  name  their  own  salaries  and  give  advice. 
But  the  day  of  the  sale  of  a  man's  scientific  reputa- 
tion and  that  of  the  institution  with  which  he  is 


MONETARY  VALUE  OF  FOODS        51 

connected  has  almost  passed.  The  scientist  has 
come  to  have  sufficient  altruism  to  believe  that  his 
services  belong  to  all  the  people  and  not  to  a  set  of 
money-making  individuals. 

It  is  a  matter  of  common  knowledge  that  physio- 
logical chemistry  is  as  advanced  in  this  country  as 
anywhere  else  in  the  world.  There  is  a  great  oppor- 
tunity opened  here  for  good  work.  Pure  food  is 
necessary.  Foul  food  should  be  strangled  at  its 
source.  But  besides  this  a  widespread  knowledge  of 
what  food  really  is  would  be  of  great  value  and 
would  blast  out  of  existence  some  commercial 
dietary  impostures  of  the  meanest  description. 
Appeal  is  therefore  made  to  the  understanding  of 
physicians  and  of  the  educated  people  of  this  coun- 
try to  take  interest  in  this  subject  to  the  end  that 
enlightened  activity  for  the  welfare  of  mankind  may 
follow. 


NOTE  ON  ENERGY  NEEDS  OF  VARIOUS 
EMPLOYMENTS 

Recent  work  of  Becker  and  Hamalainen  in  Fin- 
land has  shown  how  much  energy  is  needed  by  peo- 
ple in  various  occupations.  The  women  may  be 
first  considered.    The  work  day  was  of  eight  hours. 

A  seamstress  sewing  with  a  needle  required  1,800 
calories. 

Two  seamstresses  using  a  sewing  machine  re- 
quired 1,900  and  2,100  calories,  respectively. 

Two  bookbinders  required  1,900  and  2,100  cal- 
ories. 

Two  household  servants  employed  in  such  occupa- 
tions as  cleaning  windows  and  floors,  polishing 
knives,  forks  and  spoons,  polishing  copper  and  iron 
pots,  required  2,300  to  2,900  calories. 

Two  washerwomen,  the  same  servants  as  the  last 
named,  required  2,600  and  3,400  calories  in  the  ful- 
filment of  their  daily  work. 

Concerning  the  fuel  requirement  for  the  occupa- 
tions of  men : 

Two  tailors  required  2,400  to  2,500  calories. 

A  bookbinder  required  2,700  and  a  shoemaker 
2,800. 

Two  metal  workers,  filing  and  hammering  metals, 
required  3,100  and  3,200  calories. 


54  BASIS  OF  NUTRITION 

Two  painters,  occupied  in  painting  furniture,  re- 
quired 3,200  and  3,300  calories,  and  two  carpenters 
engaged  in  making  tables  required  the  same  amount 
of  energy. 

Two  stonemasons  chiseling  a  tombstone  needed 
4,300  and  4,700  calories. 

Two  men  sawing  wood  required  5,000  and  5,400 
calories. 

The  proverbial  reputation  of  sawing  wood  as  a 
strenuous  occupation  has  here  its  scientific  verifica- 
tion and  explains  the  disinclination  of  the  hungry  to 
engage  in  this  useful  occupation,  as  well  as  the 
unpopularity  of  charitable  wood  yards. 

The  above-mentioned  series  of  experiments  were 
made  upon  men  and  women  the  intensity  of  whose 
oxidation  processes  was  determined  by  the  direct 
measurement  of  the  carbonic  acid  gas  which  they 
expired.  The  calories  required  were  calculated  from 
this.  It  was  further  found  that  this  calculated 
requirement  of  energy  was  approximately  the  quan- 
tity which  the  individuals  were  actually  taking  in 
their  food. 

The  figures  are  highly  significant.  A  man  must 
have  sufficient  calories  in  his  diet  if  he  is  to  live 
properly  and  perform  labor  satisfactorily. 


INDEX 

Aron,  authority  for  diet  of  Philippinos,  29-30. 

Atwater, — confirmed  application  of  law  of  conservation  of 
energy  to  man,  8; — finds  heat  production  of  man  in  a 
chair  8  per  cent  and  more  greater  than  that  of  man  in 
bed,  11; — has  calculated  calories  requisite  for  a  man 
under  severe  physical  strain,  13. 

Basal  heat  production, — definition  of,  10; — of  a  normal 
man  weighing  156  pounds,  11. 

Bean,  protein, — relative  value  of,  20; — healthy  diet,  33- 
34; — inexpensive  diet,  43; — cost  in  calories  of,  44. 

Benedict, — confirmed  application  of  law  of  conservation 
of  energy  to  man,  8; — finds  heat  production  of  man  in 
a  chair  8  per  cent  and  more  greater  than  that  of  man 
in  bed,  11; — has  calculated  calories  requisite  for  a  man 
under  severe  physical  strain,  13. 

Bengali.     See  India. 

Beri-beri  disease,  36-40; — discovered  among  certain  rice- 
eaters  by  Eykman,  37; — described,  38; — cure  for, 
38-39. 

Bertelsen,  has  discovered  much  animal  starch  in  whales,  28. 

Bread  protein,  relative  value  of,  20. 

Bread, — increased  cost  of,  41 ; — value  as  a  staple  of  diet, 
43; — cost  of  1,000  calories,  44; — cost  to  furnish,  to 
poor,  well-to-do  and  wealthy  families,  45. 

Bread  and  butter,  nutritive  value  of,  1. 

Calorimeters, — use  of,  8; — experiments  with,  in  Bellevue 
Hospital,  8-9. 

Calories, — definition  of,  6-7; — table  of  number  of,  yielded 
by  oxidization  of  ordinary  food  stuffs,  7; — number  of, 
produced  by  typhoid  patient  during  an  hour,  9; — num- 


56  INDEX 

ber  of,  produced,  per  kilogram,  in  twenty-four  hours 
by  horse  and  by  mouse,  10; — number  of,  produced  by 
all  well-nourished  mammals  per  square  meter  of  sur- 
face equal,  10; — table  of,  produced  by  normal  man 
at  basal  heat  production,  10; — number  of,  produced 
by  normal  man  resting  quietly  in  bed,  and  perform- 
ing mechanical  work,  11; — produced  by  normal  man, 
at  night,  by  day,  12; — number  of,  required  in  daily 
food  of  a  man  of  sedentary  life,  13; — number  of, 
supplied  to  citizens  of  Paris,  13;  number  of,  supplied 
in  the  diet  of  farmers,  14; — table  showing,  requisite 
in  various  occupations,  14; — number  requisite,  for  a 
clerk,  14;  for  a  boy  of  twelve,  15;  for  a  baby,  15; 
in  disease,  15; — in  diet  of  Eskimo,  Bengali  and 
European,  31 ; — number  of,  should  be  marked  on 
tomato  can,  42; — number  of  required  daily  by  working 
family,  42; — diet  of  7,750  calories  for  family,  42-43; — 
table  of  cost  of  1,000,  in  various  forms,  44; — number 
of,  consumed  by  poor,  by  well-to-do,  by  wealthy 
family,  45. 

Carbohydrates, — in  diet  of  European,  30; — of  European, 
Bengali  and  Eskimo,  31. 

Casein, — can  cause  normal  growth,  24; — formed  by  cow, 
25. 

Cells,  size  of,  does  not  determine  amount  of  heat  produced 
by  mammalia,  9-10. 

Chamberlain,  Dr.  W.  P.,  U.  S.  A.,  advises  against  legisla- 
tion against  polished  rice,  39. 

Childs  restaurants, — study  of,  by  F.  C.  Gephart,  48;— table 
of  his  estimates  of,  49. 

Coleman,  Warren,  Dr.,  experiments  of,  with  typhoid 
patient  in  calorimeter,  9. 

Conservation  of  energy,  law  of,  7-8. 

Corn, — protein,  good  but  not  equivalent  to  meat  protein 


INDEX  57 

for   nourishment,   24 ; — meal,    increased   cost   of,   41 ; 

will  lower  cost  of  diet,  43;  cost  of  1,000  calories  of, 

44. 
Cost, — table  of  increased,  of  food,  41 ; — to  feed  family  of 

five,   42; — table   of   articles   of   fifty-cents-a-day    diet, 

43; — of  1,000  calories  in  various  forms,  44;  of  food 

portions  at  Childs,  49-50. 
Diet, — habits  of,  27-35; — varied  according  to  climate,  27; — 

in    tropics,    27; — among    Eskimos,    27-29; — in    India, 

China,  Japan  and  the   Philippine   Islands,  29; — Euro- 
pean   standard    of,    30-32; — chemically   pure,    will   not 

support  life,  36; — table  of  staples  of,  with  cost,  43. 
Du  Bois,  Doctor  Eugene  F.,  experiments  of,  with  typhoid 

patient  in  calorimeter,  9. 
Egg  proteins,  valuable,  20. 
Energy, — conservation    of,    law    of,    7-8; — constancy    of, 

shown  in  tests  of  calories  produced  per  square  meter 

of  surface,  10. 
Epinephrin,  essential  to  life — in  the  most  minute  quantities, 

36. 
Eskimos, — diet  and  habits  of,  27-29; — compared  with  diet 

of  European  and  Bengali,  30-32. 
Exercise, — requisite   to   normal   man,    12; — requires    extra 

calories,  13. 
Eykman,  showed  that  beri-beri  is  prevalent  among  certain 

rice-eating  nations,  37-38. 
Farmers,  table  of  calories  in  diet  of,  in  various  regions,  14. 
Fat, — sugar  and  starch  not  sufficient  to  support  life,  16; — 

in  diet  of  Eskimo,  Bengali  and  European,  31-32. 
Food, — increases  metabolism,  10; — for  fuel  necessary  for 

hospital  patient  during  convalescence,  12. 
Foods, — monetary  value  of,  41-51; — table  of  increased  cost 

of,  41 ; — table  of,  purchasable  for  fifty  cents  a  day,  43 ; 

— cost  of  1,000  calories  of  various  kinds  of,  44; — cost 


58  INDEX 

of,  for  poor,  for  well-to-do,  for  wealthy  families,  45 ; — 
report  of  Miss  Lindsay  on,  among  Glasgow  working 
people,  46-47; — report  on,  sold  in  Childs  restaurants, 
48-49; — suggestions  for  insuring  nourishing,  through 
government  regulation,  50-51. 

Fuel,  constant  need  of,  6-15. 

Funk,  questions  desirability  of  sterilization  of  milk,  38. 

Galen,  theory  of,  regarding  nutrition,  1. 

Gautier,  shows  2,500  calories  of  energy  supplied  to  each 
inhabitant  of  Paris,  13. 

Gelatin,  lacks  units  necessary  to  repair  cells,  19. 

Gephart,  F.  C.,  study  of  Childs  restaurants,  48. 

Glands,  secretions  of  internal,  most  important,  36-37. 

Glasgow,  diet  of  working  classes  in,  46. 

Gliadin, — a  principal  protein  in  wheat,  21; — an  inferior 
protein  for  growth  because  it  lacks  lysin,  22-23. 

Glucose,  oxidized,  yields  heat,  6-7. 

Glutenin,  a  principal  protein  in  wheat,  21. 

Glycocoll,  heat  stimulating  unit,  25-26. 

Government,  should  have  department  to  analyze  the  nutri- 
tive values  of  various  foods,  50-51. 

Graves  disease.    See  Hyperthyroidism. 

Gudernatsch,  demonstrated  rapid  growth  in  tadpoles  with 
thymus  gland,  37. 

Heat, — given  off  from  oxidization  of  glucose,  6; — table  of 
number  of  calories  of,  yielded  by  various  food  stuffs, 
7; — given  off  from  body  measured  in  calorimeter,  8; — 
produced,  may  be  doubled  in  a  dog,  by  ingestion  of 
meat  proteins,  25. 

Hippocrates,  belief  of,  regarding  nutrition,  1. 

Hopkins,  Gowland,  authority  for  zein  diet,  23. 

Horse, — number  of  calories  produced  by,  per  kilogram,  in 
twenty-four  hours,  10; — amount  of  food  consumed  by, 
10. 


INDEX  59 

Hubbard,  Arctic  explorer,  quoted  on  sensations  of  death 
from  starvation,  5. 

Hyperthyroidism,  heat  production  above  normal  in,  15. 

Hypothyroidism,  heat  production  below  normal  in,  15. 

India, — rice,  chief  diet  in,  29; — diet  of  inhabitants  of,  com- 
pared with  Eskimo  and  European,  30-32; — unpolished 
rice  used  in,  37-38. 

Indian  corn  protein,  relative  value  of,  20. 

Iron,  present  in  yolks  of  eggs,  in  meat  and  in  green  vege- 
tables, 15. 

Krogh,  August  and  Marie,  "A  Study  of  the  Diet  and  Me- 
tabolism of  Eskimos,"  Copenhagen,  1913,  27,  31. 

Lavoisier,  first  applied  knowledge  of  gases  to  explain 
nutritive  processes,  2-4. 

Lindsay,  Miss  Dorothy,  report  on  diet  of  working  classes 
in  Glasgow,  46-47. 

Lusk,  "Food  at  Fifty  Cents  a  Day,"  42. 

McCay,  "The  Protein  Element  in  Nutrition,"  29. 

Malnutrition,  often  undernutrition,  15. 

Meat, — proteins,  relative  value  of,  20; — corn  proteins  not 
equivalent  to,  24; — chief  diet  of  Eskimos,  27-29; — rela- 
tive value  of  different  kinds  of,  33-34; — replaceable 
by  milk,  wheat  and  beans,  34; — consumption  of,  in 
cities,  34-35 ; — increased  cost  of,  in  recent  years,  41 ; 
— purchasable  on  fifty-cents-a-day  diet,  43; — cost  of 
1,000  calories  of  certain  kinds  of,  44; — consumption  as 
a  luxury,  45. 

Meltzer, — eating  proteins  in  quantity  is  a  "factor  of 
safety,"  32. 

Mendel, — work  of,  on  vegetable  proteins,  21,  24; — could 
not  maintain  life  on  diet  chemically  pure,  36. 

Metabolism,  increased  by  food,  12. 

Milk, — protein,  relative  value  of,  20; — three  grades  of,  in 
New  York,  20;— valuable  diet,  33-34. 


60  INDEX 

Mouse, — number  of  calories  produced  by,  per  kilogram,  in 
twenty-four  hours,  10; — amount  of  food  required  by, 
10. 

Muller-Barlow  disease  analogous  in  origin  to  beri-beri,  39. 

Murlin, — has  shown  that  minimal  wear  and  tear  protein 
destruction  in  the  cells  cannot  be  prevented  with  gela- 
tin, 19;— quoted,  42. 

Nutrition, — evolution  of  theories  of,  1-5; — function  of,  4. 

Occupations,  table  of,  showing  calories  required  by  indi- 
viduals in  each,  14. 

Osborne, — work  of,  in  preparation  of  vegetable  proteins, 
21; — experiments  of,  on  diet  of  mice,  22-24; — could 
not  maintain  life  on  diet  chemically  pure,  36. 

Oxidization, — heat  given  off  in,  of  sugar  exactly  equals 
heat  absorbed  in  original  manufacture  of  the  sugar, 
6; — table  of  calories  yielded  by,  of  ordinary  food 
stuffs,  7; — measured  in  calorimeter,  8. 

Oxygen, — discovered  by  Priestley,  2; — role  of,  in  animal 
life  discovered  by  Lavoisier,  2-3; — present  theory  of 
role  of,  3-4; — given  off  in  production  of  sugar  on  leaf, 
6; — intake  measured  in  calorimeter,  8. 

Paracelsus,  explanation  of,  concerning  phenomenon  of 
nutrition,  2. 

Paton,  Noel,  preface  to  Miss  Lindsay's  report,  46. 

Pellagra,  possibly  analogous  in  origin  to  beri-beri,  39. 

Phaseolin,  definition  of,  24. 

Philippines, — diet  of  rice  with  fish  in,  29-30; — rice  pounded 
in,  37; — beri-beri,  disappeared  from,  Scouts,  39. 

Potato, — protein,  relative  value  of,  20; — has  little  neuritis- 
preventing  substance,  38. 

Power.     See  Energy. 

Protein, — constant  need  of,  16-26; — classification  of,  16-18; 
— important  components  of,  17-18; — in  infant,  40  per 
cent  of,  forms  new  structural  machinery,   18; — body, 


INDEX  61 

18; — animal,  18; — plant,  18-19; — corn,  not  equivalent 
to  meat,  24; — increases  heat  produced  in  body,  called 
its  dynamic  action,  25-26; — uses  of,  26; — in  diet  of 
Eskimo,  Bengali  and  European,  31. 

Proteins, — relative  value  of,  20; — percentage  of,  necessary 
to  growth  in  various  animals,  21-22. 

Rice,  chief  article  of  diet  in  India,  China,  Japan  and 
Philippine  Islands,  29. 

Rice-eating  nations,  beri-beri  among,  37-38. 

Rice  protein,  relative  value  of,  20. 

Rickets,  possibly  analogous  in  origin  to  beri-beri,  39. 

Rink,  report  of,  on  amount  of  meat  consumed  by  Eskimos, 
28. 

Rosa,  confirmed  application  of  law  of  conservation  of 
energy  to  man,  8. 

Rubner,  pupil  of  Voit, — quoted,  4; — first  demonstrated  law 
of  conservation  of  energy  in  animal  life,  8; — has 
shown  that  all  well-nourished  mammals  produce  the 
same  number  of  calories  per  square  meter  of  surface, 
10; — estimate  by,  of  calories  for  writers,  etc.,  12-13; 
— has  received  funds  from  Kaiser  Wilhelm  Institut  to 
study  specific  fuel  needs  of  individuals  in  various 
trades,  13; — authority  for  the  term  specific  dynamic 
action  applied  to  heat-increasing  property  of  protein, 
26; — protest  of,  against  reduction  of  protein  in  the 
diet  of  German  army,  32-33. 

Russell  Sage  Institute  of  Pathology  in  Bellevue  Hospital, 
experiments  with  calorimeter  at,  8-9. 

Salts,  usually  present  in  food  in  sufficient  quantity,  16. 

School  lunches,  demonstrable  economy  to  state,  47-48. 

Scurvy,  analogous  in  origin  to  beri-beri,  39. 

Starvation, — death  from,  causes  of,  4; — sensations  of,  5. 

Sugar, — alone  not  a  sufficient  diet,  16; — diet  of,  and  starch 
to  determine  minimal  loss  of  protein,  19-20. 


62  INDEX 

Texas  cattle-ranchers,  diet  of,  33. 

Thomas,  diet  tests  of,  19-20. 

Tropics,  diet  in,  27. 

Typhoid  patient,  number  of  calories  produced  per  hour  by, 
9. 

Value, — monetary,  of  foods,  41-51; — table  of,  increased,  41. 

Vitamines,  in  vegetable  kingdom,  necessary  to  animal 
growth,  39-40. 

Voit,  Carl, — cited  as  authority  on  early  literature  of  nutri- 
tion, 3; — quoted,  4; — described  English  physician  who 
died  from  diet  of  sugar,  16; — authority  on  European 
standard  of  diet,  30-32. 

Weight  of  animal,  does  not  determine  amount  of  heat 
which  it  produces  per  kilogram,  9-10. 

Wheat  flour.    See  Bread. 

Wheeler,  Ruth,  authority  for  zein  diet,  23. 

Zein,  a  protein  which,  like  gelatin,  contains  no  trypto- 
phan, 23. 


DUE  DATE 

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Fundamental  basis  of  nutrition. 


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